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- Wikipedia: William Jones, FRS (1675 - 3 July 1749) was a Welsh mathematician, most noted for his proposal for the use of the Greek letter pi to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Jones published Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos in 1706, a work which was intended for beginners and which included theorems on differential calculus and infinite series.
- pez: It seems that, the use of pi in its current sense: "pi" = the ratio of perimeter to diameter for any circle, appears for the first time in an article of the book, somewhere between the articles with numbers 76 and 78. Probably, the under question article "77" is beginning with line 18 from the top of the page 263. There, and in line 10 from the bottom, lies the famous first consideration of pi as "pi" with an approximate value of 3.14159.
- However, in the immediately following sentence and in line 6 from the bottom of page 263, there is a recommendation to visit the article wrongly referenced as "64.38" although it is the 65.38 at page 243, in order to use for "pi" the "True to above a 100 Places" approximate value contained there. But, at this very same page 243 and in line 5 from the top, the pi has been already defined by the author as "Periphery"--not even as "perimeter", perhaps because that time the word "Periphery" was used as "perimeter".
- Therefore, a previous appearance of pi in the book does not define "pi".
- Moreover, it must be emphasized that we know the author's own confession, contained in the above mentioned sentense beginning in line 10 from the bottom of page 243, according to which: "This Series (among others for the same purpose, and drawn from the same Principle) I receiv’d from...my...Friend Mr. John Machin".
- But, obviously, John Machin knew very well what he was doing...
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